NOTES ON FISHING METHODS OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 787 
THE FIJI ISLANDS. 
Kambara was the first island landed on in this group. It is small 
and somewhat isolated, and as a result its people. have retained many 
of their old customs. 
Fishing is carried on in the usual manner of natives, whose only 
object is to supply their immediate wants. Basket fish-traps, hook and 
line, spears, and seines are used. The reef extends off from the shore 
but a short distance. At low tide it is mostly bare, leaving the usual 
pools from which fish are captured with spear. The traps are the same 
kind as described on page 780. They are set in deep pools on the reef, 
and when the sea is smooth are placed in deep water on the outside of 
the reef. Stonesare put in the bottom for ballast. We did not see any 
buoys used for marking the position of the traps. 
On the village side of the island, the side on which we landed, the 
beach is not suitable for collecting with seine; but several attempts 
were made, meeting with poor success, tearing the net badly. The 
result was 1 flounder and 5 gar-fish. 
Needle, Kambara, Fiji. 
While we saw no beaches where seines could be used, yet no doubt 
there are places where they can be operated, for in walking through 
the village we came across several seines 40 to 50 feet in length and 
6 to 9 feet deep. The mesh was small, averaging 2 inches. The 
seines were made of fine cotton twine and were hand-knit, with floats 
of koa wood, and small pieces of coral seized to the foot line. A bam- 
boo mesh board is used, the same pattern as seen in all parts of the 
United States. The needle is like that used by Italian and other fish- 
ermen in the Mediterranean, and is also found in the Tonga group 
and Society Islands. 
At Kambara, for the first time, we saw the double canoe of the South 
Pacific, but at a great disadvantage, it being hauled up on the beach 
and covered over with palm leaves. There were also on the beach 
several single dugout canoes, one of which was measured. It was 31 
feet long, 2 feet wide at the gunwales, 2? feet at the turn of the bilge, 
and 24 feet deep; round-sided and quite flat on the bottom; bow quite 
sharp; straight stem; stern gradually tapering to almost a point. In 
digging out the canoe, raised portions of wood 2 inches wide and 1 
inch deep had been left, forming clamp and bilge strakes. Body of 
